Why
by Creaturess of the Night
Summary: My first songfic so be gentle. Based off the song Why by Rascal Flatts. The darkness became too much for one character and they ended it all leaving behind grief stricken friends. Who was it that lost the battle? How will the characters react to their death? Read and find out. Some fluff contained in there (amongst the tears). Warning: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH! Rated M for suicide.
1. Meg

**Hello readers. I've returned with stories for you guys. I'm hoping to make up for lost time on all the stories that are incomplete since I feel bad for not even touching them lately. Anyway, this is a songfic that's been on my mind lately and I finally sat down and wrote it. The song is Why by Rascal Flatts. This song really hits home for me and I decided to apply it to The Phantom of the Opera and give it a go. So I hope you all like it. And as someone who has lost a friend to suicide, and has contemplated it myself, my inbox is always open for anyone who needs to talk; I am more than willing to share my personal experience with suicidal thoughts and my battle with depression/anxiety. So I'm always here for you guys. Thank you for reading this incredibly long and drawn out author's note and I hope you enjoy the story. See you soon! And as always, Please review and let me know what you guys think. Xoxo ~Creaturess of the Night~  
A/N: Song Lyrics= Bold, Italic, and Underline, Flashbacks=Bold, and the Story is broken up into chapters for a part of the song that relates to each character (You Will Figure Out What I mean)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the song Why (It is owned by Rascal Flatts and the other people who helped to write it) or any characters associated with The Phantom of the Opera (they are orignally owned by Gaston Leroux and some of them are owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber).**

 _ **You must've a been in a place so dark, couldn't feel the light**_

 _ **Reachin' for you through that stormy cloud**_

 _ **Now here we are gathered in our little home town**_

 _ **This can't be the way you meant to draw a crowd**_

*Meg*

Meg sat in the carriage outside her home waiting for her mother. She was dressed in mourning black and had her blonde hair pulled back from her face. Her cheeks were wet with tears but she couldn't stop shedding them. She looked out the window and remembered the event that brought them to this day.

 **-Meg looked around at the opera house and smiled. It had been finished being reconstructed a few weeks ago and was ready for reopening. She sat down at the piano and started playing a song that had been on her mind lately. She was thinking of playing it for Erik, wondering what he would think about it since he enjoyed music so. She looked up when she heard two pairs of footsteps approaching her direction. She blinked in shock when she saw her mother leading Raoul de Chagny out of the main entry doors. Once he was gone her mother turned to her. Meg hissed "What the hell did he want?" Madame Giry answered "Christine was here to visit Erik a couple of days ago. And I am going to say judging by your surprise; was a fact that he neglected to mention to us both." Meg asked "So what did Raoul want then?" Madame Giry shrugged and answered "I do not know Meg; but these two visits back to back spell trouble for Erik's emotional and mental recovery." Meg felt a bad feeling tugging at her gut and she stood up quickly from the piano as she answered "I am going to go check on him." Madame Giry nodded and turned to head back to her office. Meg turned and headed to the chapel to go through the entrance to Erik's layer that she had found hidden there. She opened the entrance and headed quickly to the main part of Erik's layer. She arrived and felt dread and fear fill her at the unnatural quiet that filled the cavern. She tentatively called out "Erik, are you here?" She entered the cavern where all the candles and musical instruments were. She looked around and felt panic surge through her when she didn't see Erik anywhere. She headed towards the swan room as she called out "Erik, are you home?" She pushed through the curtain and froze at the scene in front of her. Erik was lying in the swan bed with a monkey music box on the table next to him along with a rose tied with a black ribbon and engagement ring. Meg saw his stillness and rushed to his side. That's when she stepped in something wet and slick. She looked down and gasped in horror at the blood pooling on the floor. It dripped on the pure white mask and ran off it to cover the floor next to the bed. She noticed the unfinished score next to him as she ripped off a strip of her dressed and wrapped it tightly around his bleeding wrist. He whispered brokenly "I'm sorry Meg, I just couldn't deal with it anymore. You were the little sister that I've always wanted and I could never repay you and your mom or thank you guys enough. Tell your mom thanks and that I love her and she will always be my mom and friend." Meg nodded as tears slid down her cheeks rapidly, she saw him take a shallow small breath before he finished "Tell her that I will always love her and that she will always be my angel. Thanks for finding me Meg, you are the greatest friend and sister I've ever had. I love you Meg." She whispered "I love you too Erik, all of your beautiful self." He smiled slightly as she leaned down and kissed his deformed cheek. He took one more breath, before his chest stopped rising and falling. Meg clung to his lifeless form and sobbed. She screamed "MOM!"-**

 ** _Oh why, that's what I keep asking_**

 ** _Was there anything I could've_**

 ** _Said or done_**

 ** _Oh, I had no clue you were_**

 ** _Masking_**

 ** _A troubled soul, God only knows_**

 ** _What went wrong and why_**

 ** _You would leave the stage_**

 ** _In the middle of a song_**

Meg was broken out of the flashback when her mother stepped into the carriage. The driver started heading to the little small town where Erik was born so they could commence with the funeral. She felt her mother's arm around her as the tears slid down her cheeks again.

She looked at the sky and thought 'Erik, I wish you would have stayed. You had so much potential, there would have been plenty in attendance to all your operas that you were going to publish. That can't the way you wanted to gain your audience.' She turned to her mother and whispered "Why mom?"

Madame Giry kissed her temple and answered just as quietly "I don't know Meg. I just don't know."

Meg wished that Erik could have seen the light that was trying to touch him through all of his darkness; and she started to think. She rambled "I should have been there for him, I should have done more, I should have…"

Her mother interrupted her ramblings "No Marguerite. Don't do that to yourself. There was nothing we could have done, he hid the signs so well."

Meg sighed; but she knew that her mother was right. She knew that Erik was troubled, she just wished she had known how much that he was masking of himself. Meg looked at the unfinished music score in her hands that she found next to him and remembered all the times of determination and persistence that he had to finish other scores and songs; God only knew why he would choose to leave the world (his stage) in the middle of this song without finishing it.


	2. Madame Giry

**_Now in my mind I'll keep you frozen_**

 ** _As a seventeen-year-old_**

 ** _Rounding third to score the_**

 ** _Winning run_**

 ** _You always played with passion_**

 ** _No matter what the game_**

 ** _When you took the stage_**

 ** _You'd shine just like the sun_**

*Madame Giry*

Madame Giry held her daughter as tears slid down both their cheeks for their fallen friend. She could still her daughter's panicked screams and finding Erik's lifeless form in her daughter's hands. Madame Giry wasn't a stranger to loss; she had lost her parents, her husband before Meg was born, and a couple of friends from her ballet corp. But the only pain she could compare this too, was losing her husband. Erik was like a son to her ever since she saved him from that Gypsy Circus all those years ago. She loved him like her own, just as she did Christine. But, now she had lost him and she didn't think that the hole he left in her heart would ever be fixed. She smiled at a memory that flashed through her head.

 **-Madame Giry looked at the empty field with a smile. She knew that Erik had needed fresh air and Meg wanted to play with him so there wasn't a way to lose. She sat perched on a piece of old foundation left from a house and watched the two with a smile on her face. Erik had grown into a handsome and toned young man, the 17 year old was tall but definitely fit even for his skinny form. At the current moment, the 8 year old was chasing Erik around objects they were using as bases with a round object in her hand. She was trying to tag him but Erik was just a second ahead of her. He was rounding third base and she was hot on his heels. He crossed the final plate for the 'winning' run and Meg tackled him to the ground. They both laughed and Madame Giry smiled at the two. She felt her heart warm at the sight of those two; Erik put a lot of passion and creativity in the games that he played with Meg despite the age difference. Madame Giry was glad that even though he was a teenager; he was getting a glimpse of what childhood was supposed to be like.-**

Madame Giry was going to treasure those memories. She would also come to treasure the memories of him putting on miniature operas and plays for her and later on Meg (when she wasn't being a star along with him). But the one of the memories of Erik she would treasure the most was the debut of his opera; Don Juan Triumphant. She could still picture him playing the part of Don Juan, and the way he seemed to shine as bright as the sun as he sang on stage in front of the audience. Whenever he took the stage; being in the mini plays and operas or his major one; he shone brightly and captivated everyone in attendance and you could tell that he truly belonged up there...performing in operas, or creating them.

 ** _Oh why, that's what I keep asking_**

 ** _Was there anything I could've_**

 ** _Said or done_**

 ** _Oh, I had no clue you were_**

 ** _Masking_**

 ** _A troubled soul, God only knows_**

 ** _What went wrong and why_**

 ** _You would leave the stage_**

 ** _In the middle of a song_**

Madame Giry was stunned at Meg's sudden question; but couldn't help agreeing. She too wondered why Erik did it. She too also wondered if there was any more she could have said or done to prevent it. But she also knew that Erik was masking a lot more pain and heartache than he was showing. She had always known that he had a troubled soul; but she loved him anyway because that's what mother's do. But God could only answer the question of what went wrong and why he would chose for it to end this way. She wished that she could see all the music that he would have composed, and the operas that he would have debuted, but the genius behind it all, was gone; leaving every piece of them unfinished and not started.


	3. Christine

_**Now the oak trees are swaying**_

 _ **In the early autumn breeze**_

 _ **A golden sun is shining on my face**_

 _ **Through tangled thoughts**_

 _ **I hear a mockingbird sing**_

 _ **This old world really ain't that**_

 _ **Bad of a place**_

*Christine*

It was two days after her visit when she received the telegram. It was from Madame Giry telling her that the Phantom (who she came to know that his real name was Erik) had taken his life. She couldn't believe it and if it wasn't for the funeral place and time she would think it was someone's idea of a cruel joke. She was dressed in black and getting ready to leave the house to go to the funeral. Raoul stopped her at the door and she looked into his eyes wondering why there was guilt in those orbs.

He asked "Are you sure you do not want me to go with?"

Christine answered "Raoul, you two did not get along. I think it would be more respectful to him for you not to go. I will be fine."

She kissed him on the cheek and walked out the door to the waiting carriage. She stepped in and the driver took off to the little town of Rouen, France where her Angel was meant to be buried. She looked at the bouquet of red roses in her hand tied together by a black ribbon, lost in the memories of all the times that he had given her ones just like it.

She arrived at the cemetery where the internment and service was taking place. She noticed that Madame Giry and Meg had not yet arrived and she stepped out of the carriage to wait for them. She headed over to where a priest was waiting and where Erik would be laid to rest. She looked up at the oak tree that stood tall near Erik's graved shading some of it and Christine thought it couldn't be more fitting for her Angel.

The branches were swaying in the gentle autumn breeze and she turned her face to the warm golden sun shining on her face. In her thoughts she compared Erik's personality to be as big (and undeniably as warm) as the sun; making the weather just right for this unfortunate gathering.

Through her tangled and tumbling thoughts she heard a mockingbird sing some notes and she smiled sadly; Erik was the only person she knew that could hear something like that and make a song out of it. And then she started thinking of his music and his wonderful angelic voice...that she would never hear again. She looked around at all these small things and whispered "This old world really isn't all that bad. I wish that you could have seen that; instead of only getting shown the bad parts."

She was broken out of her reverie by the sound of carriage wheels pulling up to where she was standing. She turned to see Meg and Madame Giry getting out of the carriage. They approached her and Christine winced at the heartbreaking grief on her face.

At that moment, she couldn't help but feel that this was all her fault. Maybe if she hadn't of paid him that visit a little over a week ago; then maybe he wouldn't have thought that this was the only thing left for him. She couldn't wrap her head around it; she thought that they were rebuilding a good relationship and that she had his blessing and friendship.

Madame Giry put an arm around her shoulder and whispered "It isn't your fault Christine. It cannot be put onto any of us. We couldn't see the well-hidden signs. Nothing we would have said or done would have changed this; Erik's mind was next to impossible to change when it was made."

Christine let the tears slide down her cheeks as Madame Giry led her and Meg over to where the priest was standing.


	4. All 3 Characters

**_Oh why, there's no comprehending_**

 ** _And who am I to try to_**

 ** _Judge or explain_**

 ** _Oh, but I do have one_**

 ** _Burning question_**

 ** _Who told you life wasn't_**

 ** _Worth the fight_**

 ** _They were wrong, they lied_**

 ** _Now you're gone and we cry_**

 ** _'Cause it's not like you to_**

 ** _Walk away_**

 ** _In the middle of a song_**

 ** _Your beautiful song_**

 ** _Your absolutely beautiful song_**

*Outside POV*

The Priest conducted the ceremony and all three women didn't bother to contain the onslaught of tears. They still didn't want to comprehend that their beloved (in different ways) was gone and wasn't coming back. All three hoped that he would pop out of his grave and reveal that it was all an illusion or trick. A silent agreement came from the women, they weren't going to judge him for this or try to explain his actions to anyone else; knowing that it would be how he would've liked it.

The ceremony was over and all three stood there sobbing as the priest bowed and left them to grieve. Meg walked to the headstone that was simple black granite engraved with;

 _ **Erik Destler**_

 _ **Beloved friend, son, brother, and Angel of Music**_

 _ **An Angel amongst humans with a beautiful soul of light**_

Meg set a single white rose down in front of it and kissed the grave. She had remembered Erik admitting to her that white roses were his favorite flower when they were younger. She kissed the headstone with a broken "Goodbye Erik. Rest in peace, I love you" and stepped aside to let Christine and her mother pay their respects.

Christine stepped forward and set her bouquet down next to Meg's simple but significant flower. She whispered "I will miss you my Angel. I will always love you Erik."

She stepped next to Meg and the two best friends clung to each other and let the sobs loose. Madame Giry kneeled in front of the tombstone and laid stuffed monkey between the flowers. She smiled sadly and whispered "I found that a little while before you left us. I couldn't believe that you still kept it after all these years especially with the memories it must have attached to it, but then I realized that it was the reason you kept going in that gypsy circus. I figured it would be able to watch over you until we join you in death."

She stroked the black granite and whispered "You will always be my son and friend. Meg and I will visit you every day. I love you."

She laid a kiss on the cool black rock and stood up. She elegantly brushed the dirt from her dress before joining the sobbing girls. She hugged them tightly and could have sworn that she felt Erik's presence wrap around them. She kissed their foreheads and just rubbed comforting circles on their backs.

All three unknowingly had the same thought; who was it that told Erik life wasn't worth living anymore and that it wasn't worth fighting for? Unbeknownst to them, it was a certain Viscount that felt guilty for that the last thing he said to the Phantom being "Stay away from Christine. You've already damaged her enough. But that's what you do best demon; destroy everything you touch. Everyone would be better off without you. Christine would be better off if you were dead."

The three grieving women knew it was a lie and so did the guilty Viscount; but it was too late to take the words back; Erik was gone. Once Christine and Meg's sobs subsided Madame Giry led them to the carriages. Meg stopped Christine at theirs as she reached into the carriage and grabbed the music score of the seat. She handed it to Christine and said "I think this was meant to be for you."

Christine felt her heart ache at the words written on top; **The Melody of the Angels (Christine).** Christine stroked the paper and teared up as she read the notes and chords. She knew that it was a start of a piece for her to be able to sing. She whispered "This isn't like you Angel. It's not like you to walk away in the middle of a song. Especially your beautiful, beautiful song for me."

 **Hello again readers. I see you made it through the story. I'm glad for that. I hope you've all enjoyed it and that you will leave a lovely review...or any kind of review; all our welcome (Erik would be happy for some love since I killed him in this story). Thanks for sticking to this story and I hope that the chapters and formatting were easy for you guys to read and I can't wait to hear what you think. And like I said in my first chapter; I'm here for all of you if you ever need anything. Suicide is a rising problem; so please if it is serious call the suicide prevention hotline; because it not only affects you; but it affects the people around you:** **1 (800) 273-8255. And if you don't feel comfortable calling then text "Go" to 741-741. You're life is worth living, and it maybe hard, but you can do it. Just remember, Always Keep Fighting because your'e story isn't over. Thanks again for reading and I hope to hear your thoughts (Erik does too, he feels a little unloved right now ;)...). Thanks again!  
Xoxox 3 ~Creaturess of the Night~**


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